Spinal Tap-esque stories from Rock and Metal bands

Welsh Megaman

Post your favourite Spinal Tap-esque stories from Rock and Metal bands here!

I'll get the ball rolling:-

At one of their early gigs, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister called out the people in the upper balcony for not standing up - only to be told later it was the handicapped section!

Phil Collen of Def Leppard receiving pilot radio signals through his guitar when playing near an air force base.

Bruce Dickinson (and probably every other member of Maiden) have split their pants on stage and had to have them gaffer taped up.

Oh, and Megadeth's gig in Antrim!

Kess73

Welsh Megaman wrote: »

Post your favourite Spinal Tap-esque stories from Rock and Metal bands here!

I'll get the ball rolling:-

At one of their early gigs, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister called out the people in the upper balcony for not standing up - only to be told later it was the handicapped section!

Phil Collen of Def Leppard receiving pilot radio signals through his guitar when playing near an air force base.

Bruce Dickinson (and probably every other member of Maiden) have split their pants on stage and had to have them gaffer taped up.

Oh, and Megadeth's gig in Antrim!

Mustaine's speech?

120_Minutes

Kess73 wrote: »

Mustaine's speech?

"they were like; you cant stop them, they're selling tee shirts for the cause, and i was like, what the ****'s the cause?"



later on...


"this ones for the cause, give ireland back to the irish!!"



I AM AN ANTICHRIST......

Kess73

120_Minutes wrote: »

"they were like; you cant stop them, they're selling tee shirts for the cause, and i was like, what the ****'s the cause?"



later on...


"this ones for the cause, give ireland back to the irish!!"



I AM AN ANTICHRIST......

He has tried variations of that speech a number of times over the years. Have been to at least four Megadeth gigs where he mentioned the "cause" Each time was a cringefest.

Mr. CooL ICE

Not in the same league as above (especially because its not a fond memory), but thought I would share this one.

A band that were supporting my old band (whos name I don't want to mention) were playing their first gig. I knew some of them and they were well rehearsed and prepared. They invited a load of their friends and around 40 or so people showed up just for them. They weren't expecting this many and got nervous as hell, so they went backstage to sniff lines of coke to calm the nerves :rolleyes: . They then hit the stage and realised their guitars were out of tune but were too wasted to tune them to the keyboard, so had to get a sober friend to jump up on stage and tune the guitars for them. While this was happening, the guy tuning the guitars kept screaming at the drummer to shut up because he kept doing these animal-esque drum rolls and screaming "YEAAHH!".

Long story short: New band took coke before gig and spent 45 mins onstage with nothing but feedback, the sound of guitar tuning, drum cymbals being hit and a total of 2x4 min songs. When we took the stage, the place was empty.

Welsh Megaman

When Ian Gillan joined Black Sabbath, he had their lyrics on a sheet taped to the monitors when they performed live. During the gigs, the dry ice was so heavy that he spent entire shows on his knees trying to read the lyrics!

When Dio toured 'The Last In Line' the stage set consisted of a giant pyramid - Vinny Appice and his drumkit would emerge from the top. One time, the top failed to open trapping him inside with very little room to breathe.

peter1892

There were a few Tap-esque rock n' roll deaths over the years. Les Harvey of Stone The Crows (brother of Alex Harvey) was killed on stage when he touched a mic that wasn't correctly earthed and he was electrocuted.

Then there was Toto's drummer Jeff Porcaro who died after inhaling weedkiller - bizarre gardening accident! Although the coroner's report did mention that hardened arteries caused by cocaine use may have been the real reason...

Savage Henry

Slash and Duff went missing for a couple of hours in Prague before a gig with GNR. Everyone was worried that the gig would have to be cancelled. Finally the dynamic duo turned up at the last minute and explained that they had been in a strip club and had lost track of time because they were fascinated that the strippers all had pubic hair:D

spiritcrusher

Found this comment on another forum. I'd heard the story before but couldn't remember the details. From Slash's autobiography apparently. I must warn you though, it's not very PG!

Slash said some funny **** about James.
He said in his book that one night James and Lars were partying with him back in 88 or 89 and james wanted to f*ck this chick. So he took her up to a room. Slash had to get something out of there and he saw James skull f*cking this chick so hard her head was being pounded into the wall...
James was growling these words..."Yes, yes...that'll be fine, that'll do..that'll be fine."

.
That last line is just ridiculous!

Elrollo

spiritcrusher wrote: »

Found this comment on another forum. I'd heard the story before but couldn't remember the details. From Slash's autobiography apparently. I must warn you though, it's not very PG!

.
That last line is just ridiculous!

Just had a thought of Hetfield just as he was about to finish up 'oh, oh, oooh I am the TABLE!! YEAH!'

Welsh Megaman

During a Dokken gig, Don Dokken threw his mike in the air which got lost in the lights. It came back down on his head, knocked him unconscious AND knocked his wig off!

Welsh Megaman

spiritcrusher wrote: »

Found this comment on another forum. I'd heard the story before but couldn't remember the details. From Slash's autobiography apparently. I must warn you though, it's not very PG!

.
That last line is just ridiculous!

THE STRUGGLE WITHIN! :D

bnt

One of the incidents in This Is Spinal Tap - Derek getting trapped in the plastic "cocoon" - may have been inspired by something that happened to Be-Bop Deluxe in the '70s. When guitarist Bill Nelson saw the movie, he was mortified:

During one tour, we had the same transparent tubes on stage that were around the girl on the Sunburst Finish album cover. They looked like huge bottlenecks, and we had three of them, one to hold each member of the band, apart from the drummer. We also put smoke and tracer lights inside.

Basically, the curtains would be drawn at the beginning of the show, the lights would go down, tape music would start, the curtains would open, and the audience would see three columns of smoke with lights spinning inside of them, and then the columns would go up, and the smoke would disperse, revealing three members of the band. But the columns were very fragile, and after a few shows we only had one left in one piece. So for the following shows we decided to cram all three of us into one column. Then we did a show in Manchester, and there were no stage curtains, so one of the crew suggested that we get some folding screens, and set up the column behind that. When the lights would go out they would take the screen away, and the effect would be the same. So just before the show, with the house lights still on, we kneeled behind the screen, and some crew members lifted up the column so that we could get inside. But in doing so they knocked the screen over. So here we were, halfway crouched into this tube, and the audience behind us was watching the whole thing! It completely gave the game away. Some years later, when the Spinal Tap movie came out, and I saw that scene with the transparent pods in which one of the band members gets stuck, I thought: 'somebody has seen that show in Manchester'. That was our Spinal Tap moment!

(from Sound On Sound)

Executive Steve

Motorhead are touring their Bomber album; it's their biggest tour yet. So they're travelling all over the continent with a few lorryloads of their special lighting rig, which includes a 3/4 sized replica of a Lancaster - at the peak of the show it's supposed to descend over the stage through a mist of dry ice with searchlights waving around from below it. So far so good. Then they roll in to Dresden.

Band set up, soundcheck, gig starts, bomber descends, and Lemmy roars

"Evening Dresden! Bet you ain't seen one of these in a while"

lord lucan

Executive Steve wrote: »

"Evening Dresden! Bet you ain't seen one of these in a while"

Only Lemmy could pull that off without there being a riot. LEGEND.:)

Mushy

Executive Steve wrote: »

Motorhead are touring their Bomber album; it's their biggest tour yet. So they're travelling all over the continent with a few lorryloads of their special lighting rig, which includes a 3/4 sized replica of a Lancaster - at the peak of the show it's supposed to descend over the stage through a mist of dry ice with searchlights waving around from below it. So far so good. Then they roll in to Dresden.

Band set up, soundcheck, gig starts, bomber descends, and Lemmy roars

"Evening Dresden! Bet you ain't seen one of these in a while"

Cereal spat everywhere...cheers!

Riddle101

In Motley Crue's early days, people used to mistake Mick Mars for Nicky Sixx and vice versa. One night Nicky did something illegal. Can't remember what is was. Cue the cops coming to the hotel they were staying in, and arresting Mick Mars thinking it was Nicky.

Also in Ozzy Osbourne's biography. He said he once slept for a whole day. On this particular day, his band were supposed to be playing a gig and Ozzy wasn't to be found anywhere. Apparently he slept in someone elses room or something. Everyone started to get worried with some even thinking that something bad could have happened to him like he was dead or ODd or something, seen as this was a time when he was big into the drink and drugs. Eventually Ozzy woke up and called Sharon, and told her what happened. He made to the gig in the end but it must have been a pretty funny sight.

Another story Ozzy recounts is the time when he wore Sharon's nightgown out one night. Sharon used to took his clothes to stop him from leaving his apartment to go out drinking. But she made the mistake of leaving her nightgown so he put it on and went out drinking. Cue him walking through the corridors in a nightgown with people staring at him and what he was doing.

He also said that he pissed on the Alamo, not knowing it was the Alamo and got arrested.

Edit- One final Ozzy story he recounts was a time when he was still with Black Sabbath. When they used to do loads of cocaine. On one particular day, they were all in a house snorting cocaine I think they were working on an album or something. They then heard sirens coming up the road, and thought they were being raided by the police. So everyone legged it, except for Ozzy and someone else who tried to flush the cocaine down the toilet and get rid of the evidence. During the whole scuffle, one of them dropped a bag of cocaine on the floor with it going all over the place. Ozzy being the crazy f*cker that he is, put his nose to the ground and started trying to snort the cocaine all up from the floor like a hoover or something. Eventually the door opened and they thought the cops were in the house, then the sirens went off. Turned out, that one of the guys accidently pressed some sort of alarm that sound some sort of siren alarm, and it was just the housekeeper coming in to turn it off. A close shave for Ozzy.

scudzilla

Slightly wrong wit the Ozzy and the dress story. He was drinking heavily so $harron took all his clothes away, thinking he couldn't get drink naked, he left the tour bus in 1 of her dresses, got hammered and pissed on the Alamo, all wearing her dress.
He made a donation to some daughters of the Alamo Bollox and got away with it.

Riddle101

scudzilla wrote: »

Slightly wrong wit the Ozzy and the dress story. He was drinking heavily so $harron took all his clothes away, thinking he couldn't get drink naked, he left the tour bus in 1 of her dresses, got hammered and pissed on the Alamo, all wearing her dress.
He made a donation to some daughters of the Alamo Bollox and got away with it.

Close enough.

mike65

Ron Wood relates a story about how he and Mick Jagger were doing some recreational drugs, their tour manager pops his head around the door to inform the twosome that "the police are here", cue down the toilet panic until Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland walk in wondering what the frantic behaviour was all about.

DazMarz

David Lee Roth wrecking an entire backstage area and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage... due to brown M&M's being in the dish of M&M's they had been provided with. A little proviso in their contract had strictly stipulated that there be none of the aforementioned brown candies in the bowls...

Another DLR classic. He loved to have bottles of Perrier water poured over his aching feet after a gig by the road manager.

Sebastian Bach and his 'AIDS KILLS FAGS DEAD' t-shirt.

Motley Crue's entire career, in fairness...

PTH2009

DazMarz wrote: »

David Lee Roth wrecking an entire backstage area and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage... due to brown M&M's being in the dish of M&M's they had been provided with. A little proviso in their contract had strictly stipulated that there be none of the aforementioned brown candies in the bowls...

Another DLR classic. He loved to have bottles of Perrier water poured over his aching feet after a gig by the road manager.

Sebastian Bach and his 'AIDS KILLS FAGS DEAD' t-shirt.

Motley Crue's entire career, in fairness...

According to waynes world 2 the M&M's thing happened to ozzy as well lol.

Welsh Megaman

In the mid-80's, Yngwie Malmsteen once billed himself as 'The Boss' for a gig at the London Marquee. Several unsuspecting Bruce Springsteen fans thought they were attending a secret gig by the Boss (this was during the 'Born In The USA' period)!

Imagine their disappointment when they were confronted by a short Swede dressed in frilly clothing playing endless guitar solos!

triggermortis

DazMarz wrote: »

David Lee Roth wrecking an entire backstage area and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage... due to brown M&M's being in the dish of M&M's they had been provided with. A little proviso in their contract had strictly stipulated that there be none of the aforementioned brown candies in the bowls...

.

not quite right.. Van Halen did have a provision in their early contracts about no brown M&M's - only because promoters never read the small print.
One gig was set up in a sports hall that wasn't strong enough to support all the stage and gear and thousands of dollars of damage was done. VH got out of paying for it as the contract stated the weight requirements, as well as the M&Ms, and it had not been read properly.

Van Halen also started the throwing tv's through hotel windows into pools. DLR was anal enough to ensure that there were enough extension leads to ensure it was still working when it hit the water

jack presley

triggermortis wrote: »

not quite right.. Van Halen did have a provision in their early contracts about no brown M&M's - only because promoters never read the small print.
One gig was set up in a sports hall that wasn't strong enough to support all the stage and gear and thousands of dollars of damage was done. VH got out of paying for it as the contract stated the weight requirements, as well as the M&Ms, and it had not been read properly.

Van Halen also started the throwing tv's through hotel windows into pools. DLR was anal enough to ensure that there were enough extension leads to ensure it was still working when it hit the water

and the M&Ms thing in their rider was their way of checking if the promoter had indeed read their requests. If they found brown M&Ms in the bowl, they then knew that other stuff they asked for required, like the stage being able to support a certain weight of gear, might not have been carried out so they knew to check the venue more thoroughly

Welsh Megaman

In the early days of Black Sabbath's career, they were followed everywhere by occultists when they toured the US.

Ozzy was becoming increasingly tired of being hounded by devil worshipping types. One day, a group of Satanists camped outside his hotel room, chanting, surrounded by black candles.

"Instead of brushing past them as I usually did," Ozzy says, "I went up to them, sat down, took a deep breath, blew out their candles and sang 'Happy Birthday.'

DazMarz

triggermortis wrote: »

Van Halen also started the throwing tv's through hotel windows into pools. DLR was anal enough to ensure that there were enough extension leads to ensure it was still working when it hit the water

Was that not Aerosmith???